Relationship Conflict and Affective Commitment over Time: The Moderating Influence of Team Diversity

Using social categorization and social comparison theory, we investigate how demographic diversity in teams (i.e., age and gender diversity) moderates the effects of relationship conflict on affective commitment. Tests of our hypotheses using longitudinal data (i.e., 3 measurement points) from 77 home care teams showed that relationship conflict undermines affective commitment for teams with high gender diversity but not for teams with low gender diversity. In contrast, age diversity seemed to mitigate the negative effects that relationship conflict has on affective commitment. Our findings contribute to the literature in that we develop new knowledge on the conditions under which relationship conflicts in teams may be more or less detrimental. We discuss findings in terms of social categorization and social comparison theory.